It doesn’t matter who you are
It doesn’t matter whether you are black, white, Hispanic, Asian, male, or female.
I’m saying that your mere skin doesn’t matter.
Instinct Part.2 was released a little over a year ago, to a mixed reception. On the heels of a controversial Instinct Part.1 era, a steep climb in popularity, and then the sad and mysterious exit of leader and main vocalist Love, many fans were in a sensitive spot. The harsh, unforgiving soundscape of “Skinz” provoked mixed responses.
I’ll save my analysis of the Instinct albums for another day. For now, I want to analyze Skinz as a stand-alone entity.
The music video of Skinz tells a tale of obsession and delusion. A desperate and crude yet unapologetic kind of love and desire. Lyrically, it refers love as something parasitic, describing the intense desire to be as close to a loved one as possible, expressed in the lyrics:
“Face off. Show me what’s behind the mask, under skin”
The music video seems to directly, purposefully contrast to the Libido video. Where Libido had a clear narrative with the members playing characters inside the story, Skinz steps out of it, going from a dreamlike fiction to something very close to reality. The members become more themselves. Idols, in their practice room, their van, their beach trip. Even the aspect ratio of the videos enforces this. Libido is cinematic, wide with black bars on the top and bottom. Skinz is full screen and opened up, a broader more lifelike perspective.
Additionally, the watcher is now given a perspective. You play a fan of OnlyOneOf. You watch their van. Your hands tweet about them.
The dark sound of the music video really struck me when I first watched. The English words like “parasite” and “delusion” and “underneath the skin” really popped out.
My immediate thought was a critique of obsessive fan culture, and I think that’s a large, important part of it for sure. The fan is watching OnlyOneOf from afar and desires to become closer, to know more, to see every little thing about their idols. It grows to a point of delusion, as referenced in the lyrics “Delusion in my head spread like a parasite”. The fan can barely tell reality from fiction, taking their joy from imagining themself being closer to OnlyOneOf, catching intimate moments they never would have seen before. Member A feeding member B! Member C being shirtless! And then they turn to the fan and pull them in to join the fun!
And the fan blinks back to reality, the bridge between these worlds always represented by the glitching of the music video and their phone screen. And they can feel satisfied having enjoyed time with the ones they love, as much as possible even if it’s only in their imagination.
Now, I use harsh language like delusion and obsession, but is it so severe? That’s… hard to say. I mean it must be right? How can you refer to this love as parasitic and delusional if it’s not a bad thing? But the description of the track, which I wrote at the top of the post, is so kind. The group is saying they love you, the fans, regardless of superficial things. Additionally, though the music is grating and dark, the moments imagined by the fan are not especially evil or invasive. It’s a vacation. Grilling outside and then walking and playing on the beach. The fan is watching OnlyOneOfs van in the beginning, but were they stalking it or did they happen across it?
I believe the morality of the fan is left intentionally vague because there are so many different fans with different beliefs and boundaries. There are fans who truly have problems with delusions or obsessiveness, and there are those who indulge a bit too much, and those who have the mental state to maintain well-drawn boundaries, and casual fans who would never think to cross any lines.
OnlyOneOf is acknowledging the state of Kpop fan culture, with little further commentary. Their clearest message is their description which I put at the very beginning of this analysis. To summarize it, “I love you, your mere skin doesn’t matter.”
That’s exactly what idols are for isn’t it? When someone is lonely, lacking friends or family or other relationships, when a kid needs someone to look up to, when someone’s life is stressful and their dreams seem unattainable, idols are meant to fill that gap.
(Well, they’re meant to make money for their company. But they wouldn’t make that money if they weren’t doing something beneficial for their fans.)
For me personally, idols have held many different roles. An inspiration to work hard, a muse, a companion when I’ve had no friends, a depiction of healthy masculinity… there is something very meaningful hiding beneath the scary fan culture and the money hungry companies.
It’s the relationship between fan and artist. A relationship which I feel is so perfectly captured in this video. Honestly, I’m so impressed looking at it after so much thought. The fan can be read as completely respectful and innocent, or someone as deeply bad and unhealthy as a sasaeng with serious problems.
In fact, I don’t think it needs to be one or the other. I think many fans engage in many different kinds of fan culture of varying degrees of respectfulness. It’s all based upon personal values and the depths of obsessiveness. I think that’s what’s really at the core of this video. That’s why this was truly a fear of artistry once again from the creative team.
I would love to hear any disagreements or additional points from other fans though if anyone would like to add on! I think there’s plenty more that could be analyzed here down to the smallest details!
I mean I’ve been holding these thoughts for… well, since the music video released. OnlyOneOf really has so much depth to their releases. Maybe next I’ll over analyze seoul collection or the underground idol universe or something.
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